Unwept, unhonored and unsung
by BrownBunny1976
Summary: DIR EN GREY, KYO/KAORU; In the middle of the fight for saving the human race, Kaoru tries to balance his relashionship with Kyo and his duty as a soldier.
1. Chapter 1

This time with a short installment – just four chapters :P I've never done a sci-fi fic before, so I hope I won't fail at it. The sci-fi level is very low, so I hope I'll do fine XD The idea for this came unexpectedly and it has to do with my previous job (which sucks big hairy balls, I hated it). At first I thought – no way I'm writing this, it's stupid… _" In the end, I hope it's not stupid XD At least now I really want to get this out :P So anyways, comments would be so much welcome! ^^ Hope you enjoy this ^^

Change of POV and everything else is underlined and in bold ;) s

**CHAPTER 1 **

I can't tear my eyes off the wonderful view before me: a hot red sun slowly descending into the calm blue ocean, painting the sky in wondrous colors and still warming me with its gentle yellow rays. The sand underneath me feels soft and warm and the lazy singing of the forest behind me sooths me like nothing else.

I've only seen sunset as beautiful as this in photos and videos, but never before felt what sitting at the beach and watching sunset really meant. And now, accidentally having experienced this, I feel so disappointed I have to leave.

"Hey, Kaoru!"

I turn back and see Die smiling down at me and offering me a bottle of water in his hand. I take it silently and return my eyes back to the sea. Die sits down next to me and puts his hands on his knees.

"Where's everybody?" I ask.

"They're already inside, waiting for you to get back."

I nod, but make no move to stand up.

"We have to keep to the schedule" Die says carefully.

"Is Kyo inside as well?"

The silence makes me look at Die and I see him squirm uncomfortably, not wanting to answer my question.

I give a last glance at the sea and finally stand up. Die follows me, not getting behind more than a few steps. On my way back to the spaceship I greedily drink the water and toss the bottle over my head. Die catches it.

"Don't be hard on him, Kao" he says and I snort. "He just voiced out what all of us really want, but don't dare to say."

I stop immediately and turn to look at him. My old friend. My most trusted companion through many difficult years.

"I won't say there wouldn't be anything else I'd want more than to stay in this planet – green, warm, full of life, like a real paradise from a picture. But that's all it is – a wild dream. We are obliged to fulfill our mission. The entire human race is in danger of extinction and all Kyo can think of is his own well-being and comfortable life."

"And you as well" Die says, not even faltering for a second.

"This cannot happen" I say slowly and firmly, as if talking to a stubborn child.

"I know, Kaoru" Die says. "But Kyo is… well, Kyo. You know how stubborn he is."

"I am stubborn as well" I say and turn away from Die.

We walk through thick grass some more time until our little spaceship emerges in the meadow. It looks so out of place in this fairy-tale like scenery – all rusty, grey, dirty and old.

As soon as we come close to the spaceship, I see Kyo lying in the grass and starring at the already darkening sky. Die silently passes through me and enters the spaceship, leaving me and Kyo alone. I come close to him and look down at his dark eyes and black as night hair.

"Come on, Kyo, we have to go."

He keeps silent, but his face now looks more sad than anything else. And defeated.

"I know we have to" he says silently. "And I want to find those mother fuckers myself, you know that. But I just… For a moment I imagined what it would be like living here with you for the rest of our lives and…"

He sighs deeply and finally looks at me.

"If we would stay here, you'd be with me forever."

"Kyo, we've been through this already many times."

Kyo stands up heavily and glares at me, disappointment and pain evident in his eyes.

"Kaoru, I need you. A casual conversation or a fuck once in a while is not enough. I want all of you."

I turn my eyes from him, the intensity of emotions in his eyes is too much to handle.

"If we would stay here, we could be together without any worries. If we'll go back to Earth, you'll ditch me and pretend I don't exist again. I won't be able to handle it once more."

His voice cracks in the end and I look at him, surprised. Kyo's always been the most vicious of all of us, the strongest. But I've always been his weakness. The only vulnerable thing about him was me.

"Kyo, it's not about what you or me want, it's about saving the fucking human race. That's what's most important for me now and it should be for you."

"I don't fucking care about the human race!" he spats back, his every word full of anger. "The fucking human race is what's keeping us apart!"

"No, Kyo, it's me who's keeping us apart."

We could be together – and God knows I want that so much – with the price attached to it. It's no honor for a soldier to be with another man. Not when human race is slowly decreasing in numbers, not when every child born counts, not when hundreds of people are being kidnapped and shipped from Earth to an unknown direction for an unknown reason and after years of search there still are no leads.

We could be together, but it would mean we'd be forced to leave the squad and not be a part of the search anymore. It meant giving up the opportunity to stop the kidnappings. Because if they will go on, soon there's going to be a very small number of humans left. We already suffer a lot living on Earth that has turned into one huge wilderness of ice and snow. I was born into this, but I grew up with pictures, videos and stories about hot summers, rain forests, hundreds of different animals, the festivals of _sakura_ blooming and the privilege of eating varieties of delicious food every day.

This planet that I'm now standing on is like an echo of the Earth that used to be – green, warm and full of life.

Now, if we won't manage to find out who is kidnapping humans and why, it will be the last nail in the human kind's coffin. They come silently, without us noticing, they wipe out the small or bigger communities, towns or cities and leave, taking all the people with them.

It's the biggest wound that's still bleeding profoundly and we will bleed to death, if we won't find those bastards and deal with them.

And if I'll now start being open about my relationship with Kyo, we both will be thrown out of the army. That's the rule. Whoever is not helping the human kind produce babies is nothing but a pleasure seeking self-absorbed fuck that army doesn't need. And I don't want that. I want to stay in the army that has been my home since my childhood and find whoever is doing this. I want this to stop. And I know Kyo wants the same. But I guess being with me is his first priority.

I took him up from street, almost freezing to death and starvation, I enrolled him in the army, I supervised him and guided him through everything, until he managed to stand up for himself and became a widely known soldier, famous for his devotion to my squad and his courage. And a slight hint of craziness.

But I guess for him I always remained the one higher than anything else, even his own planet Earth. Earth was the one who almost killed him. I was the one who saved his life. Nobody gave a damn about some homeless young guy, skinny and weak, uneducated, not knowing how to read or write. World was full of bums like him and nobody cared. Women and children was what counted for many, many years. There would always be a guy ready to impregnate all of them, no need for hundreds of blokes with dicks running around. If they're not in the army, they don't count. That's the rule. And I agree with it. Army has been my life since I was born. But for Kyo, I was the one who pulled him out of misery and presented him with a real, comfortable life, I was his beginning, because before me he merely existed, trying to survive in the frozen and snowed-in streets of Tokyo.

So maybe I shouldn't be hard on Kyo when he puts me before everything else, even before the survival of human kind and the land of ice that Earth has become to be, because they almost killed him and I was the one who saved him.

But I just can't give up on the life I have now. And I can't give up on human kind. It hurts too much to think we will get extinct like tigers, lions, eagles, snakes and thousands of other life forms that ever lived on Earth.

If the kidnappings will proceed, the Japanese will be an extinct human race in less than eighty years.

I can't place this in a second place, after Kyo. I want to stop this. I want this to stop badly.

But so far we have nothing. Only the approximate direction to where they might have taken humans. Our little squad is one of those few who inspect every planet in a concrete radar, trying to see if it's the planet that humans have been brought to. It takes three days to determine if there is any life form on a planet similar to human beings. If there's not, we proceed to another planet.

Our every mission lasts for some months and then we get back home to get new directions, change the spaceship if necessary, get the food supplies and go off again. We inspect a specific area and then after coming back to Earth for supplies, get back to a different direction in the same area, where we suspect the kidnappers might be residing.

Mankind has put all it's resources into building the powerful spaceships. And we've got a deadly weapon for those, kidnapping the humans. But we just seem to be unable to locate them.

Suddenly Kyo closes the distance between us and takes my face in his hands, distracting me from my thoughts.

"Kaoru, I feel like we'll be roaming the space for the rest of our lives, looking for the missing people, and we will eventually die, having never been happy, having never been together."

"No, Kyo" I take his hands into mine and force his arms off my face. "We will. I promise you one thing – when we will find those bastards, I will be with you. Officially or in any other way you want me to be."

Kyo looks at me skeptically, clearly not believing my words.

"If we will ever find them, you will want to be a part of a team destroying them. You won't let Die, Shinya and Toshiya go alone and risk their lives, you'll go with them. And God knows anything might happen."

"It's one of two things, Kyo: either we split up right now and forget everything that's happened, either you wait until we catch those fuckers and then you'll get your happily ever after. There's no third alternative I can offer, Kyo. I'm sorry."

He pushes me back, looking so hurt and angry that I falter for a second, my heart piercing with pain and going for him immediately. But Kyo turns and disappears inside the spaceship.

I compose myself and follow him.

Until we get off, Kyo does his usual routines and sits in his seat, arms crossed, face hard and emotionless.

Shinya looks worriedly at him every few minutes, but when Shinya was not worried for Kyo? Toshiya just seems not surprised that we fight again and just ignored the whole tense atmosphere in our little main cabin. And Die offered his sympathetic smiles to me.

But as always, there was work to do. And I was the head of this little team.

Responsibilities and obligations to my soldiers came first.

Even if I loved Kyo with my whole rotten, cold heart.

**As soon as we get off and unbuckle our seatbelts, Kyo stands up and leaves. I stare at the vast black and cold space in front of me for a moment. **

"Will you be alright alone for a few hours?" I ask, not looking at anyone in particular. It's degrading how all we have is the control room of a spaceship, a narrow hallway, small kitchen, equipment room and one small bedroom with a shower and a toilet. Even our beds are just two bunks. And that's all. No privacy whatsoever. No doors that can be closed. Whatever happens in the bedroom can be perfectly well heard in the control room.

But today I try to forget that as I stand up and follow Kyo into the bedroom. Nobody answers my question, because an answer is not needed. They'll be fine on their own. My question was a simple request not to go into the bedroom for a few hours and not to embarrass me or Kyo if anything that I plan to do will happen.

I find Kyo lying on his bunk, starring at my one above him.

I come closer and sit down, but he ignores me. For a moment I keep silent, hoping Kyo would say something.

"I hate to hurt you" I finally utter, looking at him.

Kyo blinks, unexpecting to hear what I just said, but still doesn't look at me.

"You know I'll never change my position, so why do you keep trying and why do you keep making me hurt you?"

Kyo keeps silent, but his hands clench into fists.

I climb on the bed, straddle him and put my hands on both sides of his head. Now Kyo is forced to look me in the eyes.

I lower my hips and grind them over his crotch area.

"So now you wanna fuck?" Kyo asks angrily.

I lower my head as close as possible and whisper, almost touching his lips with mine.

"Yeah, I do…I wanna fuck those stupid thoughts out of your head."

He suddenly puts his hands on my chest and tries to push me off himself, but I don't budge. I get a hold of his hands in my one and with another hand unzip his pants.

"Fuck off, Kaoru!"

Kyo struggles half-heartedly. We rarely have sex in spaceship because of the privacy issue.

I put my leg between his thighs and prop my knee at his crotch, so that Kyo wouldn't escape. He seems to want the closure as much as I do, but resists because he's angry with me and wants to get back at me at least in this way. And perhaps because he knows Die, Toshiya and Shinya are just right behind the corner and any louder sound is clearly heard to them.

But I ignore it. I need to make up with Kyo.

I force my hand into his pants and grab his cock in my palm. Kyo shudders and looks me in the eyes. And I see he wants it badly. And as if on some kind of unspoken agreement I release him from my grip and he turns me over, in one harsh movement pulls my pants down and pulls his dick from the slit of his pants. Then he wets his fingers with saliva and clumsily attempts to prepare me for penetration. But Kyo is so impatient, that he just props at my hole with his wet fingers impatiently and then I feel the head of his penis at my entrance.

It goes all the way inside me in one harsh thrust and I moan throatily and uncomfortably.

It's not like I'm a virgin or very tight, but when Kyo treats me roughly, the first few minutes are always a bummer. I hate the initial uncomfortable stretching feeling, the tightness and dryness of the invasion of Kyo's cock. He's not too big for me, but when we have long periods of sex deprivation, the first time after a long time is always hard on whoever is on the receiving end. And this time it's my ass that gets to absorb Kyo's angry dick.

"Shit" I grit my teeth and close my eyes for a second. While Kyo is on me, already fucking me at a rather slow pace, I manage to kneel on the ground with one of my legs still on the bunk, this way giving the best access ever for Kyo to comfortably fuck me.

"You asked for it" I hear Kyo mumble in my ear throatily.

I don't say anything in return, but get myself as comfortable in my position as I can and grip the sheets with my left hand to support myself. Kyo takes my right hand into his and we intertwine our fingers.

I feel completely his in a position like this. Kyo fucks me good and I have to bite my lip to prevent from emitting any louder screams. I want to just let go and enjoy it fully, because we never really can. There always was something that we had to be careful of and never could just let go and fuck like crazy, until the headboard of the bed hit the wall, until I couldn't take it and screamed in pleasure of my release.

There always were people that might hear us. And we always had to pretend we weren't in love.

If it was a burden for me, for Kyo it was the most devastating thing ever.

Kyo loved me unconditionally. I fucking owned him. I still do. But now Kyo wants other people to know he's mine.

"Kao" Kyo lets out a muffled moan and from the way his muscles tighten I know he's close to release. I tighten my grip on his hand, wanting him to feel how much I need him, how much I love the closeness and the intimacy of everything we did.

I feel Kyo's other hand go down looking for my cock and as he finds it, he starts pumping me really hard, squeezing the living hell out of me. Desperately wanting to make me feel pleasure as if saying 'look, I can make you come, I can make you feel good, so don't leave me, please don't leave me'.

"Kyo… Kyo…"

I suddenly find it hard to breathe. It comes in short sharp spasms, air leaves my lungs in painful bursts and I can't hold back anymore. I frantically push back to meet his desperate thrusts, thirsty for that all-consuming pleasure to repeat itself over and over again. I feel Kyo's lips close to my cheek, his breaths exhaled on my skin, his sweating chest, belly, hips and thighs making slapping noises, his whole hard and strong body over me, convulsing in pleasurable spasms because of me.

"F-fuck" I let out through gritted teeth. I don't want this to end too soon. I want Kyo to keep fucking me, and fucking me, and fucking me. Until I'm just a mass of soft flesh and bones in his strong arms.

Kyo's movements quicken, his pace gets hard and fast and I meet his thrusts with an even bigger passion. I feel his body convulse and he comes inside me and those few seconds while he comes does the trick for me as well and I follow him soon after.

Kyo collapses over me and I feel the strength in my body disappear. I slump down together with him on his bunk and we just lie there, breathing hard and not managing to do anything else.

Finally Kyo heavily rolls off me and lies next to me on his back. He looks satisfied and relaxed. I get on the bunk now fully and lie next to him. I can't resist taking his hand into mine and kissing his shoulder lightly.

"I'm sorry" Kyo mumbles, not looking me in the eyes. "I know you're not going to change your way of living just because I want you to, I know you're not going to just stop looking for those fuckers and abandon your work and your three loyal friends. But I just…"

I silence him by kissing him on the lips and Kyo finally turns to look at me, his eyes sad and pleading.

"You know what, Kyo? When we'll get back, I'm going to use the ten day holiday I have and take you to The Resort."

"_The Resort_?" Kyo gapes at me, not believing. And I'm not surprised at that. Only the most rich and influential people can afford and get a place in The Resort. It's a sunny hot heaven under one big roof with everything you might want. It has a hotel with an artificial beach and seaside, with hot 'sun' shinning down on the sand, with a worry free atmosphere and hundreds of ways to relax.

Living on a land of snow and ice The Resort is like the last heaven on Earth. And most of the people die without ever stepping anywhere closer than the fence of the massive building.

"Yes, The Resort, Kyo. An acquaintance of mine owes me big time and he promised me to get a room anytime I want. So I'll remind him of that favor he owes me when we'll get back."

Kyo looks at me amazed and slowly a small smile creeps on his face.

"It would definitely be the best holiday on Earth ever."

"I knew you'd like it" I smile to him and kiss him on the lips.

I want to say I love him, but I guess he knows. I wouldn't be risking my whole life's dream of being in an army because of some casual fuck. But I'd be risking with anything I have for Kyo.

"Kaoru?"

"Yeah?"

Kyo smiles to me so warmly, that my heart goes for him immediately. I lean in and kiss his soft full lips greedily.

"Do you really promise to be with me officially when we find those fuckers and leave army?"

"I do" I assure him. I'd be giving up a lot, but at least I wouldn't be thrown out in the street after my whole life in an army. I have already assured myself home and stable income whatever happens, so I'm not that afraid of the future alone with Kyo. But I just can't leave until so much hasn't been done.

"After we find them, we'll move in together and you'll be around me 24/7. If that doesn't scare you off, you are more than welcome to stick around for the rest of my life."

Kyo laughs and kisses me on the lips.

"Promise?" he asks.

"I promise."

And we sealed the deal with one more final kiss.

**TBC**

Comments are love XD And I'm desperately in need for some love in my life ^^


	2. Chapter 2

A change of POV is underlined and in bold ;)

**Chapter 2 **

I put my feet on the table and take the cup of tea in my hands. It sucks that while on duty we cannot have even a sip of beer. Those responsible for our food supplies put some shit for us to eat, but no drop of alcohol ever enters our kitchen. I tried smuggling it in, but just got in trouble for that and got Kaoru angry with me.

Shinya tries reading some book. Die looks bored. He just browses through the documents scattered on the table, but I don't think he even sees anything. Just Toshiya seems to be the only one who's remotely OK with waiting. He also has a cup of tea and just stares out the window, watching the scenery. He throws a disapproving look at my feet on the table, but doesn't say anything.

All of us from time to time glance at the Area Control Device. That's what we call a little computer that shows the landscape around our spaceship so that we could watch out for possible threats in this new planet. But so far it's just us. Seems like a very barren land – barely any plants, lots of rocks and some water. It's possible that there could be life forms here, but the initial scan didn't come up with any results.

There's also a two-way radio transceiver on the table, but in order to save the energy, we can only contact each other in an emergency. So it's better that we don't hear from Kaoru until he gets back himself.

"Kaoru should be back in an hour already" Die says and leans back in his chair.

"I guess we already know what he's gonna say – there's nothing here and we can finally go back home to Earth" Toshiya says, looking from his cup at Die.

"Man, I can't wait to go home!" Die smiles broadly. "I'm dying to go to a bar and have all the beer I can choke down!"

Toshiya laughs and even Shinya smiles, lifting his eyes from the book for a moment.

"What's gotten into you, Kyo?" Die asks. "Why so silent?"

I glance at him, then at the Area Control Device.

"Don't worry, Kaoru will be fine. This planet is a waste of time."

"You really think so?" I ask.

"Don't you think so, Kyo?" Shinya asks, looking at me now.

I don't answer immediately. I look out the window, then at the device again.

"I'm not sure."

All three of them look at me now curiously and with a little bit of worry in their eyes.

"I thought after Kaoru is back we'll be going home" Shinya says slowly.

I shake my head.

"I'll do my round after Kaoru gets back" I say assuredly.

"Are you serious?" Toshiya asks, clearly surprised.

I nod.

"Kyo, this will be a waste of time!" Die looks scandalized.

"There's something weird about this planet… I can't explain, but I think there might be some life forms here after all."

"Even if the devices don't detect anything? Even if Kaoru comes back saying there's not a living soul here?" Shinya asks.

"Don't we want to be 100% certain that that's the case?" I ask.

The silence is a firm 'yes' to my question.

"Believe me, I want to go home myself, but nobody will ever come back to check this planet after we depart, so we have to be completely sure this is not the place they are hiding."

Shinya nods slowly.

"OK, Kyo, but it would not be the first time we leave a planet after Kaoru does his initial procedure. What makes this planet different that you want to waste additional 24 hours?"

"It's just that…" for the first time I find it hard to explain my reasons, because they are not based entirely on scientific evidence. "This planet has oxygen, it has water, it has plants, but it seems that there aren't any living beings, just some small insects. I find it hard to believe. How come there aren't even any rodents or birds?"

"Planets are different, Kyo" Die reasons. "We've seen many strange things."

"Yeah, we did. And it's either this planet really has no life whatsoever or there's something about it or about those kidnappers that prevents our devices from detecting them."

I fall silent and sip tea from my cup.

"So you're still going, even if Kaoru will come back with negative results, finding no aliens with the kidnapped humans?" Toshiya asks.

I just nod.

After a moment of silence Die sighs so exaggeratedly, that I almost laugh. He's already bored out of his mind and the prospect of spending 24 more hours drives him mad.

"Kaoru won't be happy to hear that" he says.

"Who cares what Kaoru thinks!" I shot back.

"You do?" Toshiya says, amused.

"It's just my job and I'm not going to do a sloppy job just because all of you are bored" I say. "I have to make sure I'm wrong about my theory. Then we'll be able to go back home."

"Why are you so anal about you job, Kyo? You hate it anyways" Die says.

"This job gives me home and food – something you took for granted since you were born" I say, malice sipping out through my every word.

"I thought Kaoru gave you all of that" Die shots back.

"Screw Kaoru!"

"I thought you did just that a few days ago" Die says with a smirk on his lips.

I guess I just can't win today.

"Why are you still so angry with Kaoru?" Shinya asks. "I thought you two made up already."

"We did."

"So what's the problem?"

I keep silent for a moment, looking at the liquid in my cup. These things are so very private. But I have nobody else to talk to. Those three are my only friends. They and Kaoru are all I've got.

And sometimes you can't go on keeping everything bottled up inside for too long.

"I think all of what we're doing is just a waste of time anyways. Humans are going to get extinct with time. Even if we stop these kidnappings, the weather is getting colder and colder every year. With time, the Earth will be unsuitable for living. Everything will freeze to death and people will all die. I don't see any reason for wasting our lives looking for something that is killing humans while all of us are slowly going to the direction of extinction anyway."

Silence is thick and heavy between us now.

Toshiya looks quite disturbed hearing all of that, Shinya looks like he wants to argue and Die just looks plainly uncomfortable – he's not one for those philosophical type of guys anyways.

"You mean," Shinya starts slowly, "that you want Kaoru to quit all of this, move in with you and fuck you every night. That would be a completely meaningful existence for you."

"That's just how you put it" I'm not taken aback even slightly by this crude comment. "You have your loving little family, your friends, your lover, you already have a normal happy life. I've lived on the street until I met Kaoru and I was almost seventeen by that time. Why wouldn't I wish for a normal life with my lover instead of all of this?"

"He has a point" Die says, looking at Shinya.

Shinya sighs heavily, looking too tired to argue. He already knows that if it's me, then the case is lost. I can be a stubborn bastard if I put my mind to it. And I usually do.

"The thing is, it's not going to change" Shinya says. "Whether you want it or not, Kaoru's dream is to catch whoever or whatever is kidnapping humans and he won't settle down until it's done. Though I can understand why that makes you angry, Kyo."

I huff angrily, but I know Shinya's right. And that's exactly what makes my life miserable. That's the only thing that's wrong with my life now, because I have everything else I ever wanted.

I only need Kaoru settling down with me and living happily ever after.

The fact that it's not going to happen until we catch those bastards makes me angry and miserable. Because until then me and Kaoru for the rest of the world are just two very close friends, but not lovers.

Never lovers.

"All I want is a normal life with Kaoru" I say silently. "I dream of waking up with him, going for breakfast together, going out together, not caring who saw us, not sneaking into Kaoru's room at night for a quick fuck. Not having to deal with Kaoru pretending I don't exist sometimes. I wish we could just be together. And Kaoru refuses to give all of that to me until we catch something we don't even know how it looks like."

I look down at my hands.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this" I murmured.

I feel Die's heavy hand descend on my shoulder.

"That's what friends are for. Even if sometimes they can be a pain in the ass."

I snigger.

"Sorry, Die, but I'm still doing my round."

"Yeah, well… just be quick!"

We keep up the conversation for some time, then have a snack when finally Kaoru returns. When he enters the control room, I immediately stand up, already ready to leave, a little bag with the necessary equipment and water with food in my hands.

Kaoru raises his eyebrows in question.

"Kyo, this planet is empty" he says.

"I want to make sure it really is."

Kaoru drops his bag on the floor and looks at me.

"If you think it's necessary…"

I nod. Kaoru rewards me with a tired, but gentle smile. At least he doesn't feel there's a need to pretend we're not together in front of our friends.

I go up to him and kiss him on the lips gently. I can taste his scent so clearly. For a moment I just let myself get lost in the feeling of closeness with him. But then Kaoru pulls back slightly and I open my eyes.

"Let's not waste more time than necessary, Kyo" Kaoru chuckles. I smirk at him and quickly steal one more kiss, then head towards the exit.

I don't look back at my friends, because I feel a little embarrassed for making out with Kaoru in front of them. I just wave my hand shortly to say goodbye.

"Bye, Kyo" I hear the union of three voices behind me.

I step out of the door and head forward. I've got 24 hours of work ahead of me.

**I only remember that for some reason I stopped at Starbucks near the Army Flats where I lived just to get a cup of hot drink and a snack. **There wasn't much to eat at home and I just thought I'd get something from café.

It was summer and there wasn't much snow around. It still was something around -3C during the day, but it was the warmest it would get, so I just lingered around outside the Starbucks, put my coffee on the table outside and slowly lit a cigarette.

The sun was already setting down, but it still was bright. It really was a calm and beautiful evening.

Somewhere between finishing a cigarette and opening my sandwich to eat, I noticed a boy watching me. At first he didn't see I noticed him. I saw how carefully and jealously he followed my hand with the sandwich in it as if he hadn't had a bite in days. When I took a closer look at him, I figured that perhaps he really didn't. He looked as if he was homeless.

Soon though he noticed that I saw him and got startled for a second, half turning, as if considering to run away. But I smiled a little and he hesitated. He looked at the food in my hand again.

I finished my coffee in a few more quick gulps and threw the cup away.

"Wait here!" I said to him rather loudly, even though he was standing just some ten meters away from me. "Just don't go!"

I quickly went back inside and bought two big sandwiches with chicken and a big cup of hot chocolate. When I hurried outside, he was still standing there, looking rather uncomfortable and unsure.

I lifted my hand with the food in it and showed him, motioning with my head for him to come over.

He hesitated, but only for a second, I guess his hunger made decisions for him. He came over to me and I handed him the food and the drink. And he dug in. The two sandwiches disappeared very quickly and it seemed as if he only breathed easier when he threw the wrappings away and took a big mouthful of hot chocolate.

"Thank you" he said silently, not looking me in the eyes.

"You're welcome."

I watched him drink and wondered why all of a sudden I decided to be so kind. It's not like he was the first homeless boy I've ever seen. There were hundreds of homeless people in the streets and I never before cared for any of them. They were unlucky enough to end up in a gutter and it was their problem. I had my life and if I found myself in the street starving, no one would give me a helping hand.

So why this boy was any different?

I looked at his short, unevenly cut black hair, his big dark eyes, his prominent cheekbones and bony fingers, wrapped around the cup. He was dressed in dirty rags that weren't warm enough for this weather, but even underneath the clothes I could see his smallish handsome frame.

If I would have met him in some other place and under other circumstances, and if he wouldn't be underage, he'd be someone I'd fancy.

"How old are you?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"Almost seventeen."

"Seventeen? Really? You look much younger!"

"I get that a lot" he smiled cheekily, then fidgeted uncomfortably, lowering the now empty cup. "Thanks a lot…"

"You're welcome."

For a moment we both had nothing to say and he hesitated, turning around as if wanting to already go.

"Do you have where to sleep tonight?" I asked without thinking. I didn't know him, he looked boyish and helpless, but for all I knew he might have been a thief, somewhat dangerous, or have friends who looked over him and made their living by robbing and killing people by luring them with this boy's innocent looks. I certainly shouldn't even be considering anything more than giving him something to eat.

He shook his head slowly, and then stopped.

"Well… I just sleep over there, in the sewers, under the water heating pipes – it's warm down there."

I felt an unpleasant knot rise in my throat.

"You can sleep over at my place tonight. If you want to."

He looked at me surprised, then suddenly his face changed as if realization hit him.

"Ahh… umm…" he fidgeted, not wanting to look me in the eyes. "I don't do that kind of stuff for shelter and food…" he finally said.

"What kind of stuff?"

The look he gave me made me feel really stupid for a moment until it dawned on me what kind of stuff he had in mind. I blushed very slightly from embarrassment.

"You misunderstood me, I don't want… you know, _that_ from you. I was just suggesting a place for you to crash tonight."

"Why?"

He looked at me suspiciously.

"Do you often take homeless people to your place?"

I shook my head curtly.

"I just… Well, it's up to you, it's not like I'm going to beg" I said, a little offended by his mistrust in me, even though he had all the right not to trust me, a complete stranger.

I turned around and started walking away a little relieved he refused my offer. But suddenly he caught up with me.

"I'll go with you" he said. "If the offer is still on, that is."

"Yeah" I said, now not really sure myself if I still wanted to do that. He was dirty, he smelled bad and people might see that I took back to my room a young boy for a night. It's wasn't going to look good. He was pretty, but I didn't think that was enough of a reward for the trouble I might get because of him. But I guessed it was too late now.

We slowly went to my place and, fortunately, didn't meet anyone on the way. I ushered him inside and locked the door behind us. When I turned, I saw him looking at his feet, feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed. He noticed how in a hurry I was and he knew that I didn't want to be seen with him. And immediately I felt pity for him.

How would I feel to know somebody was ashamed of me just because I was unlucky enough not to have home and food.

"You know what, go take a shower. I'll give you some of my clothes and then we can watch TV if you want, have a drink."

He nodded and I showed him the way.

When he reappeared from the shower, dressed in my jeans and a t-shirt, he looked much more handsome when all the dirt and smell was washed off him. And I suddenly felt a need to own him, to fuck him.

Maybe after all he was right and my intentions weren't purely noble.

He sat next to me and smiled slightly. And I forced myself not to think any indecent thoughts. Especially about somebody not yet even seventeen.

"Shower was heavenly."

"Glad to hear that. By the way, I'm Kaoru."

"Kyo."

We got drunk and got talking that night. He told me a lot of things. He opened up because never before anyone showed any interest in his life story. It was simple – he was an orphan, when he turned twelve, the orphanage no longer got money for him, so he, as many others, was thrown out in the street. He stole food and clothing and slept wherever he could. Spent most of his days fighting for his life in cold and starvation. Never had any friends. Never celebrated his birthday. Learned the hardest way – from his own mistakes. Learned not to trust anyone. Barely escaped rape four times just out of pure luck, but had to blow four guys the fifth time. Since then doesn't get lured to stay over at someone's place that easily anymore, even if he was freezing and desperate for food.

It was a sad story.

And something inside me wanted to protect him. Something inside me didn't even consider letting him go out in the street alone ever again. I let him stay in my flat, enrolled him in army's school where he with time trained to be a perfect soldier and found him a part-time job. By the time he finished training we already were lovers, sharing everything, though only three of my friends knew about that.

Kyo fell for me so bad. And a part of me loved to posses him in all ways possible.

With time he gained a reputation and no longer needed my support. But despite that he never discarded me. On the contrary, the more independent he became, the more afraid of losing me he felt.

I never knew that on the day I bought him food I'd get him for my whole life.

It was the best bargain I ever made.

**Die and Toshiya were sleeping by the time the fourteenth hour since Kyo's departure passed.** His usual routine was to go as far as possible during the first twelve hours and then get back during the next twelve. So by now Kyo would be already coming back and as he haven't contacted them, that meant he didn't find anything.

"I thought it would be a waste of time" Kaoru says, not managing to keep his thoughts to himself any longer.

"At least now we are completely sure" Shinya says. He looks sleepy, but his and Kaoru's shift hasn't ended yet. They still have an hour to go and then Toshiya and Die will swap, letting the two of them go to sleep for some nine hours.

Kaoru takes out a cigarette and lights it up despite Shinya's clear disapproving look. Usually nobody smoked inside the spaceship when they were actually not in space.

"Seriously, Shinya, you're missing out a lot" Kaoru laughs.

"I doubt it. At least I'm not afraid to get cancer while sm-" Shinya suddenly falls silent as the radio transceiver on the table suddenly comes to life and Kyo's muffled voice reaches their ears.

"Kaoru? Kaoru, do you hear me?"

Kyo's voice is silent, rushed and scared. And that on its own is scaring, because nothing can scare Kyo so easily.

Kaoru grabs the radio transceiver quickly, forgetting his cigarette.

"Kyo? I'm here! Speak to me! What's wrong?"

For a moment there can only be heard some shuffling sounds and a lot of background noise, but finally Kyo's voice reappears.

"I found them."

For a moment neither Kaoru nor Shinya react, they just stare in disbelief at the radio transceiver.

"Kaoru?" something in Kyo's voice makes Kaoru's skin grow cold suddenly.

"I'm here, Kyo" he reassures.

"I'm cornered, Kaoru."

Kyo sounds so small all of a sudden. A clear note of fear and urgency is evident in his voice.

"I'm stuck in the ravine and it's a dead end. And they're all coming this way."

Kaoru grips the radio transceiver as if he could squeeze himself through it and appear next to Kyo.

"Kaoru?"

"Just hide, Kyo! Hide anywhere you can!" Kaoru tries not to scream, so that he wouldn't give away Kyo to those things, but it's so hard to do. Kyo's there, all alone, thirteen hours away from him, at dusk.

Kyo was in danger. And this thought alone made Kaoru go mad with fear and pain.

"I can't!" Kyo whispers back urgently, sounding scared. 'There's no rock bigger than my feet, no cave, no hole no nothing! Kaoru, please, help me! Please, find me wherever they will take me and come to get me!"

Those words make Kaoru freeze to the spot yet again, unexplainable horror grips his whole being. He felt as if he himself was being put on a death row.

"Kyo, take the tracking device and put it in your underwear! We will track you down and we will get you back!" he hurriedly whispers back, already standing up.

Shinya, shocked in disbelieve, was already sending a message to the control group on Earth informing them their exact coordinates and that they might have finally found those bastards. In case something would happen to all of them, the army on Earth would know where to go to save the humans from being kidnapped.

"Done that already!" Kyo whispers back.

The fact that he is so scared is more than worrying. It was hard to scare Kyo, he was one of those cold-hearted bastards that were made of stone. And now Kyo was scared to death.

"I can't talk anymore, they're almost here" Kyo says, his voice sounding pleading and desperate.

"We're on our way, Kyo! We will get you, just stay alive – don't provoke them, be obedient, be invisible, stay alive and we will get you!"

"I love you, Kaoru" Kyo whispers. The radio transceiver crackles, a scream rips through and then it all goes dead silent.

For a moment Kaoru just stares, pure horror and panic written all over his face.

Then he suddenly turns around opening his mouth for a scream, but Die and Toshiya are already here, and from the looks on their faces Kaoru knew they didn't need to be told anything.

It takes them just another three minutes to gather all the essential things they need – the emergency bags with guns, water, some food and essential survival equipment – ant they are on their way, running after Shinya who has the tracking device in his hands.

A little blue dot is beeping on the screen, indicating Kyo's location and Shinya easily finds his way leading to it.

The only worrying thing is that the tracking device that Kyo said he put in his underwear was staying in the same place and not moving. As if waiting for them to catch up.

And it will be twelve hours until they will finally catch up.

**TBC**

Sorry for the grammar fails all over the chapter and the confusion of tenses _" Something's wrong with my English, seriously _" And sorry for the lack of editing :(

Anyways, hope you still liked it ^^ This chapter gives more details and info, and things are heading somewhere already XD

So… comments, anyone?

Oh, by the way… I must warn you – **LOTS OF ANGST** in this story, character death as well. So if you don't like depressing and angsty and dark stuff, don't read :( This is the way I sometimes write…


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3 **

I only heard their voices or, to be more exact, the strange clacking sounds that came through their small mouths while they turned the corner and then I was in their grasp so quickly that I didn't even see it happen. I struggled, half expecting to buy me some time, but soon discovered it was all pointless. They were too strong and there were too many of them.

I could only see their transparent jellyfish-like bodies while they grabbed me and ripped all my clothes off the next second. I wasn't expecting that. I could see the small tracking device fall down on the ground unnoticed and buried under the pile of my clothes. My underwear was the last thing that fell on the ground and then I was roughly pushed back until my back hit the wall.

I stared at them and they stared back at me. While I was in pure shock, for the first time looking closely at them, trembling from embarrassment and fear, they looked me over with a sense of victory and happiness in their eyes. And curiosity.

I've never seen anything like them before. They were tall and thin, transparent and looked slimy (though when they touched me, their skin was hard and dry), had a strange posture, like they were not exactly standing, but not crouching yet. They did resemble humans, but just because they had two hands and two legs. I could have sworn I saw some kind of growths on their backs that might be wings.

They all were dressed just very slightly – with little shorts and little sleeveless shirts. And had strange technical devices, such that I never seen before.

I looked at the one, standing closest to me, looked at its eyes and saw the most worrying thing ever – no compassion. Those were the eyes of a predator, mad with anger and hunger for prey.

I took a very little step backwards, trying to distance myself from them, but the next second I felt their hands on me. They forced me to lie down on my stomach and bound my hands together with my legs behind my back. I cried in pain, because my limbs were twisted uncomfortably and painfully, but they didn't care. Curiously like children they looked me over, somebody touched my belly, tried sticking a finger in my bellybutton. I shrank back from the touch, but then the same curious hands were on my cock, grabbing it, pulling it forward. I screamed in pain and the hands disappeared for a moment. But then they were back again and somebody thrust a finger in my ass. It went so deep that I even felt the tip hitting a wall far inside me.

I cried in pain and clenched my hands into fists in anger because of the humiliating ministrations that I was suddenly forced to go through. Somebody pulled my nipple, somebody tried ripping my hair off as if to see if it comes off.

But all of that ended as quickly as it started when somebody else suddenly said something in a sharp and commanding tone. All hands were gone the next moment. Then somebody took me on its back and I found myself handing upside down, starring into alien transparent feet. Before I knew it, I saw us climbing the steep wall and floating through the air some few meters above the ground.

I could only gape at the landscape underneath me, wondering in fear how the hell Kaoru is going to find me when the tracking device is left lying down there, under the pile of my clothes and when these creatures, that our scanners were unable to detect, leave no footprints on the ground as well.

For the first time in many years I was really afraid for my own life.

oOoOoOo

**THANKFULLY** we descended on the soft ground just after some ten or fifteen minutes in the middle of a little path. They started running softly towards the thick and high hills ahead of us.

I had to swallow the feeling of helplessness that was rising in my throat as I understood that they were running at least three times quicker than any human ever could. Kaoru will be so far behind. How the hell am I supposed to survive for so long? What are they going to do to me?

When the pain in my arms and legs was unbearable, I couldn't hold back a moan coming out of my lips. But they seemed not to care. I felt dizzy and sick from hanging upside down for so long, but all I could do was just grit my teeth and bear with it.

Every minute I thought I couldn't take any more of the pain twisting my body and hoped it will end and we will reach the destination soon, but every next minute I had to brace myself and accept that it wasn't ending yet.

And when finally I was flung down on the ground, I was oblivious as to how much time has passed since they caught me. I saw white spots in front of my eyes and for some time could just lie there on the ground, moaning from pain. It almost felt like they dislocated my arms – it was that unbearable.

But I didn't have much time to catch my breath. Suddenly I felt as somebody grabbed my restrains and cut them, then forced me to stand up. When I tried to gain my composure on my shaky legs, I saw five more same creatures looking me over. They seemed to be dressed better and had something that I would call a gun, but as my vision was still blurring, I couldn't really get a good look at anything yet.

The creatures seemed to be talking. Then somebody else appeared, carrying a bag of what I could only call raw meat. Blood was gathering in the corners of the bag, the meat looked heavy and still fresh. And I wondered for a second were they got it from in this planet that only had bugs and trees and miles and miles of dry sand and rocks.

The ones that brought me let out some joyous clicking sounds and greedily took the bag and then pushed me forward to those other creatures.

I stumbled and almost fell down, but they caught me and dragged me with themselves.

When I finally managed to lift my head to look around, I saw that we were in some kind of windowless hallway. It was filthy and dirty, and smelled bad. They dragged me all the way till the end and when we crossed the threshold I was taken aback.

On both sides of the huge hangar I saw two huge cages full of people. They were cramped next to each other barely having space to stand. I was dragged to one of the two cages. Somebody opened the little doors and thrust me inside.

There was barely any space for me. I found myself leaning on the people, trying to find strength in my shaky legs. My stomach lurched in disgust from the foul smell of piss and excrements lying all over the floor as if people were caged here for weeks, not hours. Nobody gave me time to regain my composer – they just pushed me from themselves until I finally hit the cage wall and somehow managed to find a little space to stand there.

I lifted my eyes and looked at the people. They were Chinese. All of them, at least as far as I could see, were men, all of them were naked. Barely anyone showed any interest in me. They all looked scared for their own lives.

"Does anyone speak Japanese?" I asked with a shaky voice, but the men closest to me just threw me angry looks and turned their eyes away from me.

I looked around myself as best as I could, but thick metal grating seemed to be unmovable. The cage was meant to withhold hundreds or maybe even thousands of humans. I couldn't really see its end through all the people.

I shuddered from cold, pain, tiredness and fear.

What was going to happen to me? Why do they need us? Why?

This question was unbearable. I wish I knew the answer. I wish Kaoru hurried up. But I knew Kaoru was hours and hours away from me.

I leaned on the cold metal grating and tried to even out my breathing, let my aching arms and legs rest.

I prayed God to let Kaoru come soon. The situation I was in was pretty bad.

It didn't look good at all.

oOoOoOo

**I'VE GOT NO IDEA **how much time passed. I tried to stay awake, but I think I dozed off for some time, even though it was impossible to sleep while standing. There wasn't enough space for everyone to sit or lie down. And I wasn't very happy at the thought of sitting on people's excrements, standing on them was already disgusting enough. I tried to stay awake and alert, but the fatigue and stress was catching up to me very fast.

People around me seemed scared shitless. Everyone was angry at each other and hostile. I tried to stay away as best as I could, but it was impossible not to brush upon somebody's naked body from time to time.

Thirst got to me early. But there wasn't any water, at least I didn't see any of it anywhere near me. I couldn't see a thing that happened at the other end of this huge cage. The ceiling was solid metal. I wondered how the devices didn't detect any life forms on this planet when there were hundreds of humans here. There must be something in this building that made our tracking devices come off as blank. The creatures were undetectable. As for humans, I guess they must be caged in a special place like this – safely from any possible way of finding them. This building has to have some kind of protection from being detected.

Time was crawling by so slowly and painfully. The more time passed, the more irritated and impatient the people became. Somebody got into a fight somewhere in the middle of this mass of naked bodies. But it was short-lived, as it was impossible to move properly here.

I pictured Kaoru bursting in through the doors, shooting all the fuckers and saving me. I begged for it to happen sooner. I didn't expect anything else happening before that, so when suddenly a commotion started, I got startled and taken by surprise.

People suddenly started pushing, I heard the same clicking sounds as if those aliens were talking with each other somewhere not far away from me. People started screaming as if from sudden pain. I tried standing on my toes and looking over people's heads to see what was going on, but didn't see anything.

After some time people started pushing forward and I heard more screams behind me. I tried turning back to look, my heart beating louder and louder by every second, scared of not knowing what was going on. I only saw those fuckers with some long metal sticks in their hands.

It looked like they wanted us to move forward. It looked like they wanted us to be out of the cage.

This didn't seem like anything good. I tried to fight my way to the corner of the cage and stay there as long as possible. I was already almost there, but suddenly something cold and hard pressed up against my back and the next second I felt a surging hot pain go through my whole body. My muscles contracted involuntarily, I jumped away from the feeling and hit the people in front of me. A scream escaped my mouth, just like the ones I heard a few minutes before.

I turned back and saw one of those creatures glaring back at me, with the metal stick in its hands. It seemed to be amused by my reaction, my yelp of pain and my distress.

I hesitated for a moment, looking for an opportunity to find some safe corner, but he suddenly thrust the damn thing forward again and I felt the pain run from my belly to every end of my nerves in a matter of seconds.

Tears sprang to my eyes from the share pain I was feeling and there was nothing else to do, but move forward together with everyone else.

It was a slow procession of naked, sweaty bodies pressed up together in anger and fear, moving forward and disappearing through low and narrow doors. I couldn't see what was happening on the other side, but I could hear the screams and struggling of every man that disappeared through that narrow hole in the cage.

The cage was somehow connected with the wall and the doors went straight into the wall of the hangar. Every man from the cage disappeared behind those doors in the wall.

This whole procession took a lot of time, but even then I think my turn came too quickly and I found myself standing at the edge of the exit. I still couldn't see anything, because the doors were low and narrow. People, led forward by those fuckers from behind, pushed me to get through those doors as much as I didn't want to.

As I climbed through the threshold I found myself standing in a closed up narrow space – like a box – with the holes underneath and above me and a little doorway in front of me. I didn't have time to properly look around or even do something, as the same sharp and hot pain went through my whole body. It came from my feet on the ground and went through my whole body to my head.

I faltered for a second, but the images before me got blurred, I fell on the floor as my knees became too weak to withhold my weight, hot liquid ran down my inner thighs and I couldn't even control it. I fell on the floor.

I felt somebody take my hand and drag me out of that place. I could hear some strange noise of metal clanking and then I felt being lifted from the ground, but nothing made sense.

Only when I finally managed to open my eyes, I found myself shackled by my legs, hanging upside down and slowly being moved forward.

I tried to make sense of what I saw, felt and heard, but it all was like one surreal nightmare. It looked a lot like some kind of factory, where the goods were transported one by one on some kind of conveyer.

I tried looking around and saw a man on my right, hanging upside-down unconscious, looking more like a dead man than noting else. On my left there was a man as well, also dead to the world. I guess that shock in the room was supposed to make us unconscious or maybe… or maybe much more than unconscious…

I tried lifting my hands and reaching for the restrains, but I only managed to do it halfway when my hands betrayed me and fell to my sides. I was so out of it.

I saw that we were moving towards those fucking creatures again. They were sitting in front of the hanging people and doing something that I couldn't quite see. But the closer we came, the more scared I felt.

And only when the man on my right reached the first of those creatures, I saw it take the man's penis and balls in his hand, pull it forward and in one swift movement cut all of the three organs off. Then he threw them over his back in some huge barrel behind him.

For a moment I froze and could only stare in horror as I was pulled in front of the creature with the knife in his hand. He saw me starring wide eyed at him, but he didn't seem to be surprised at all. He looked indifferent. He grabbed my dick and my balls in his huge hand and pulled them forward.

I tried resisting, tried pushing him off me with my hands, but he just shooed them away with ease and lifted his knife.

I felt hot blood run down my belly, chest, neck and face. I opened my mouth to scream in pain, but I only choked on my own blood. My muscles contracted painfully, for a moment I couldn't hear and see a thing, only the all-consuming pain seared through my body, numbing everything else.

I felt myself being shoved out of the place as my limp body was now moving towards another room, through some hole in the wall again. Or it might be some huge machine for all I knew – I could barely see anything through pain-lidded eyes.

I extended my hands trying to get a hold of the threshold and prevent from being moved forward, but my grip on the doorframe loosened too easily and I was pulled in some room together with other hanging bodies around me.

I vaguely heard some kind of hissing and felt hot steam all around me. Then the next second, before I could even brace myself for what was about to happen, I felt boiling water scolding every inch of my nerve-covered body.

It burned my wound under my belly, it scolded my skin and got in every little wrinkle I had. It burned the skin on my eyelids, the skin on my head, the skin on my back, the skin on my legs – every little nerve in my body screamed in pain.

And I couldn't help it – I wailed so painfully that I thought my voice would break. I screamed and screamed and screamed, but the pain never eased, never drew back even for a second. It pulsed on every inch of my body and it hurt like nothing I ever felt before. I never knew pain like this existed in the world.

I didn't even understand at first that we were moved again. The shackles on my ankles felt hard and strong. I tried lifting my hands again, but I didn't even know what I wanted to do anymore.

Through pain lidded eyes I saw the bodies being dropped on the table one by one, released from the restrains. They bumped heavily on the metal surface, but none of the men made even a tiniest sound.

The closer I was pulled to the table, the clearer I could see what was happening there. But even if I saw headless bodies being rolled down from the table into a massive container filled with ice, my brain seemed to refuse to believe this was what was actually happening.

When suddenly the restrains were gone and I fell on the table, I felt something break in my body. My hand twisted into an abnormal position, but I barely felt the pain. I still could only open my mouth for a silent scream that my burned body forced me to experience.

I watched as the huge knife cut off the head of the man right next to me and then my body was moved forward into that man's place, my head into the restrains where the blood of the previous victim was still fresh and warm.

I looked above at the shiny bloody blades and still waited for Kaoru to burst into the room and save me.

Please, Kaoru, you almost have no time at all – just a few more seconds.

I opened my mouth for a silent plea to spare my life, but no sound came out, just a sad silent moan.

It hurt all over. The pain was unbearable, all-consuming, tearing my senses apart. I almost wanted for all of it to stop.

But I would take all of this pain if only I could see Kaoru for the last time.

But all I saw were the bloody blades slowly falling down to slice through my skin, meat and bones, to separate my head from my body.

**TBC **

So yeah… um…

Comments?

By the way, if anyone doesn't really understand what was the point of all that was done to humans, it will be explained more clearly in the last chapter, so don't fret ^^ But I sincerely hope you get a feeling why they were treated like that, I tried to give hints as best as I could :)

Anyways, comments are very much appreciated ^^ And sorry for taking so long to update _"


	4. Chapter 4

I'd like to apologize in advance for the ending… It most likely will not be what you wanted, but it is how I saw this story ending since the beginning… It is what it is :) Anyways, do enjoy the angst :D And leave a comment :D

Sending my love to the readers :)

Now on to the last chapter!

oOoOoOo

I looked at Kyo's clothes on the ground and the shiny little tracking device just right next to them. Then lifted my eyes and looked at the steep walls of the hill right in front of me. Then back at the clothes and footprints in the sand. I could distinguish the footprints of Kyo's bare feet around his clothes, but they don't go anywhere, they just disappear into thin air as if Kyo grew wings and flew over the hills.

"What the fuck" I heard Die murmur behind me. "Can they fly or what?"

"Seems like it…" Shinya said, frowning.

"We have no time for guessing! What do we do now?" I asked, turning to look at Shinya. He was our tracker, the one who could track Kyo down without any equipment. At least I hoped he could.

"Right" Shinya hesitated for a second, but then looked back at me, determination on his face. "We go back and find a way up the hill."

At least that's something.

We go back, not letting our guard down even for a second. After going along the edge of the cliff, we find a little narrow path and start climbing up. It takes too long for my liking, but finally we manage to get on the top of it and we turn back again, heading for the place the footprints disappeared on the ground underneath.

All of us follow Shinya. When we reach the place where the crater is down below us, Shinya starts looking around. I don't really know what he's looking for, it never was my specially of being a tracker, but Shinya's very good at it. He looks around on the ground and soon starts heading forward and we follow, no questions asked.

Minutes go slowly and we just follow Shinya. It takes too long and I already start thinking if Shinya is just trying his luck and going approximately where he thinks they might have went. But a sudden exclamation makes all of us jump. Shinya turns back to us, looking exited.

"The tracks reappear here!"

I look at the ground and see a vague resemblance of footprints. If Shinya wouldn't have pointed them out, I wouldn't have noticed anything.

"I can't see Kyo's footprints" I frown.

"He's being carried" Shinya points to one particular set of footprints on the ground.

"You sure?"

"Definitely" he nods and I don't question anymore. We start following them and I pray we would find Kyo sooner. Knowing that he is in the hands of those crazed creatures who might do God knows what to him makes me very nervous.

Kyo is in their power and they can do whatever they want to him. They might hurt him.

My chest contracts from a sudden wave of nausea and pain.

I can't bare even the thought of losing him.

Please, God, don't let them hurt him. Don't let them take him away from me.

oOoOoOo

It's a huge building. It's too huge for the four of us to get in and out safely. But looking at Kaoru's face I know he doesn't care about that. He's going in, even alone, because Kyo is in there. There even are his footprints on the ground before the entrance.

I'm completely exhausted. It took us so long to finally reach this place. It's not going to be any good if we get in not only because the place is huge and we'll be outnumbered, but also because all of us are already half asleep and tired. I don't even want to guess how many hours it took us to reach this place.

"Well, Die, where is the best place to get inside?" Kaoru asks me, looking very impatient and determined.

I want to tell him it's too dangerous, that we should wait for the reinforcement, but I know that would most probably be a death sentence to Kyo. He wouldn't survive this long. But I'm afraid if we entered, we wouldn't escape either.

"Follow me" I mutter quietly, knowing there is no other choice.

I want to save Kyo as well, he is one of the few closest friends I have, but I just have a very bad feeling about it. Still, despite everything I make myself move and we make our way between the piles of rocks in the sand.

I find the best entrance for us – a sewer – and we get in. With some help from Shinya we make our way further until I find the opening and we get out from underground.

When I climb out of the hole, I find myself standing in what looks like a stockroom. There are rows of boxes and bags, and it's freezing cold in here. I step closer to one of them and try to see what's inside. It seems like some kind of frozen meat.

"Die, let's go!" Kaoru's urgent whisper startles me. I turn to look at him and see how pale and sick Toshiya's face looks.

Kaoru also turns to look at Toshiya impatiently. Toshiya just staggers, and then glances at one of the bags near his feet.

"It's human-" he says silently, but then his voice breaks and he has to stop for a second. "These are human body parts."

I stare in shock at him, then look back at the closest bag near me. The bag is full of what looks like loads of human thighs.

Realization struck hard, but the only thing I do is look at Kaoru.

It's hard to even describe the look on his face.

"Go, just go" Kaoru says, his voice sounding hard and cold.

We run through the whole freezer to the door at the end of the room. I prepare myself mentally to face tens of aliens, but when we get out of the freezer, we only see another stock room, this time full of empty boxes, bags and what not.

We hurry through this room again and just before Kaoru reaches for the handle, I stop him.

"Listen!"

We put our heads closer to the door.

"Sounds like machines working."

"It must be the place where…" but Shinya stops talking and looks back at us, his face white as a sheet of paper.

"There's no time" Kaoru says and silently opens the door.

We follow him close after. I only manage to see six strange transparent creatures and my hand moves on its own accord. I shoot one to the head and it falls down, his brains scattering around his head on the floor. At the same time three other aliens fall down shot to the head and I aim at another one. While I shoot just one, two fall down, apparently somebody else was as quick as me.

For a moment I don't lower my gun, waiting for more of them to appear, but it all is silent, just the sound of the machines working reaches my ears. Maybe their security system is very thin after all. Or maybe it's this part of a building that doesn't need lots of it.

Kaoru moves too quickly for my liking, already heading for the machines and only now I take a good look at them. And the moment I do, I freeze to the spot.

Naked human bodies hanging upside down are being shifted like they were just pieces of meat. They all looked dead to me.

"Kyo!"

Kaoru's scream startles me. I look at him alarmed, then make myself to move and put my hand on his mouth just as he is about to shout again.

"Kaoru, no!" I hiss into his ear.

He struggles and I release him from my grip.

Kaoru runs up to the slowly moving bodies, stops for a second, not knowing which way to go.

"Look for the switch to turn this off!" I say as silently as I can and we all scatter around, looking for the control device. It almost feels like looking for a needle in the hay, but suddenly the mechanisms moan loudly and all slowly comes to a halt. Shinya appears next to me and I almost put a bullet in his head.

"Die!" Shinya exclaims, lifting his hands into the air. "I found the switch!"

"Right, OK" I nod more to myself than him, lowering my gun.

I need to get a grip on myself, I'm falling apart too easily. It all gets to me – the exhaustion, adrenaline, fear and shock of what I've just witnessed.

I make myself to move, looking for Kyo. I pray that he'd be some other place, just not here. I don't even let myself think of a possibility of it being too late and of Kyo being a part of those bags and boxes in the freezer.

Suddenly I hear Toshiya gasp and both me and Shinya run to him. There is no threat, thankfully. We find Toshiya standing at the edge of some huge barrel, looking down at it. We catch up to him, Kaoru tailing behind us.

I almost don't want to look what's inside, but I know I have to.

And it's what I expected to see.

Headless human bodies, all in one huge pile. Mutilated bodies without their penises, with burnt skin, decapitated.

I look away, feeling sickness rise up my throat.

Suddenly Toshiya lets out a cry and steps back, looking horrified. I turn back slowly, not really wanting to see more of that macabre scene. But now, taking a second glance, I notice something that makes my body go numb.

There's a body with hands and back covered in tattoos. The skin is burned and it's impossible to say what the tattoos looked like exactly, but the shapes and contours of them look a lot like Kyo's. I want to say look the same as Kyo's, but I can't. It can't be him. It just can't.

Kaoru suddenly turns around and runs along the track where headless bodies were transported from some other place to this huge barrel. I make myself move and follow him. I think I know where he's going. Or what he's looking for.

And just after a few seconds I see it – another barrel, not as huge as the first one, full of -

I stop, not wanting to go any further.

Countless number of human heads lies in there. And in the very front of all of them, as if it has just fallen down, with fresh blood slowly dripping from it's sides, I can see Kyo's head, lying silently, lonely without it's body.

It's as if it was a surreal dream. Kyo's eyes opened, huge, his skin burned, his face contracted into a grimace as if he still felt pain, his eyes lifeless and dead, but so very sad and tortured.

It must be a sick dream I'm having. There's no other way to explain it.

And in this dream Kaoru slowly moves forward and kneels, reaches over all the heads and grabs Kyo's one by his hair, pulls it out and cradles it gently in his arms, his gun lying next to him forgotten. I can't see Kaoru's face, but his hands tremble violently. He embraces what is left of Kyo and buries his face into burned and bloody black hair.

I can't feel my legs at all. I don't know how I manage to appear next to Kaoru, take his gun in my hands and grab his arm, pulling him to stand up.

"Move" I say to him harshly, not recognizing my cold dead voice.

Kaoru doesn't object. He moves and that's all that matters.

We make our way back and all the time I don't let go of Kaoru's hand, bruising his skin from gripping it too hard. I glance back just once, to make sure that Shinya and Toshiya are right behind us.

In no time we're back in the freezer, then in the sewers, then out under the hot sun burning down on us and the lifeless land of sand and stone.

We run back, Shinya leading the way, even though our legs are numb from exhaustion. I hear my heart pounding in my ears, but I never let go of Kaoru. I don't look at him to make sure it's really him that I'm dragging with myself, but I hear his hard, ragged breathing and that's more than enough for me.

We run and run and run.

We never stop, not even to take a sip of water.

We only stop when we finally get inside our spaceship and close the doors.

As if on silent agreement we take our places in our seats to prepare to take off. From the corner of my eyes I can see Kaoru heavily sitting down in his place, trying to catch his breath, but it takes Shinya's shaking hands to buckle his seatbelt. Shinya closes his eyes the moment he has to shove his hands behind Kaoru's ones still holding Kyo tightly. Shinya's hands smear with blood and he looks as if he'll throw up. But he manages to keep it in.

We take our places and with some minor mistakes take off.

Nobody leaves their places even when it's safe to do so.

I stare at the countless stars before us, not wanting to avert my gaze anywhere else. The silence is eerie, I can only hear engines of our spaceship working.

The image of Kyo's face stands before my eyes and I can't get rid of it.

He must have been alive.

He must have been alive until the very last moment, feeling every little thing they did to him before they delivered the last blow.

And I can't help but still hope that this is all just a nightmare and that Kyo will just pop in the control room and drag Kaoru away for some privacy, grinning at us cheekily.

Suddenly Kaoru moves and it startles me like nothing else. I slowly turn to look at him and see him unbuckling his seatbelt. His face is like a stone – cold and hard. He still looks so much in shock.

Kaoru slowly stands up and leaves the room, Kyo's head in his hands all the time, pressed tightly into Kaoru's chest as if it was the most precious and vulnerable thing in the whole universe.

I hear his footsteps all the way till our bedroom.

What comes next is unexpected.

Inevitable.

Painful.

Final.

Kaoru's cry reaches every corner of the ship. His scream, filled with so much pain I've never heard before. He screams so hard and sad, as if tears were not enough, were not relieving enough.

Kaoru's voice breaks in the middle, he gasps, takes a shuddering breath and wails again. His scream gets muffled, because he puts his face into Kyo's messed up bloody and burned hair.

I can only imagine how his whole body hurts, how pain spreads from his chest into every cell of his body. And knowing nothing will make it go away, knowing that it will stay makes it so much worse.

"Oh God…" Toshiya's voice reaches my ears, broken and dead.

I feel tears run down my cheeks, but my face remains emotionless. Just my lip quivers.

It won't help anything if I let go and cried.

It won't… bring him back.

I grit my teeth and keep the emotions inside.

It's not only Kyo we lost. Kaoru is as good as dead as well. He will be the first one to get on the ship and head to destroy those things. He won't ever calm down until there will be even one of those things walking alive.

And he won't ever be the same.

Nothing will ever be the same.

I force the lump in my throat down and close my eyes for a moment. Tears refuse to stop floating down my cheeks, but I just don't care.

I unbuckle my seatbelt and slowly reach over to take Toshiya's hand in mine. I grab it and squeeze it, hoping it will be at least a slight comfort to him.

On my right Shinya cries silently, his face buried in his hands.

But I can only think of Kaoru in our bedroom, lying on the floor next to Kyo's bunk, cradling Kyo's head in his hands and feeling himself slowly die inside, his heart rotting and falling to pieces.

And I can only think of Kyo and his last moments of life.

And how we all failed him.

For the first time in my life cold, silent and vast space comforts me. It's not as wide and empty as Kaoru's heart must now be, but it's pretty close to what I'm feeling right now.

Cold, dark and lifeless.

**THE END**


End file.
